Samba paddy procurement likely to touch five lakh tonnes in Nagapattinam, Mayiladuthurai districts

Seeking to ensure smooth procurement of samba paddy from farmers, Secretary of Food, Cooperation and Consumer Protection K. S. Palanisamy and Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation A. Annadurai continued to inspect direct purchase centres and storage godowns in the delta region for the second consecutive day on Tuesday.

The officials toured Mayiladuthurai and Nagapattinam districts and checked the procurement process and the storage of the procured paddy.

Mr. Palaniswamy said that samba paddy procurement in the two districts was expected to touch 2.50 lakh metric tonnes each this season. Last year, 2.14 lakh tonnes were procured in Nagapattinam district and 1.81 lakh tonnes in Mayiladuthurai district.

He further said samba paddy had been raised on 1.57 lakh acres in Nagapattinam district and, so far, harvest had been completed on 5,338 acres. About 12,800 metric tonnes of paddy had been procured through 132 DPCs opened so far, of the 195 planned, in the district and 2,613 farmers had been paid ₹23.76 crore. Of this, 8,838 tonnes had been moved to godowns. The district had a capacity to store about 1.68 lakh tonnes at godowns and open-air storage points.

In Mayiladuthurai district, 1.70 lakh acres had been covered under samba paddy and harvest had been completed so far on about 30,000 acres. Over 26,000 metric tonnes of paddy had been procured through the 184 DPCs opened so far and ₹49.95 crore had been disbursed to 4,793 farmers in the district. Storage facilities with a capacity to accommodate 1.60 lakh tonnes of paddy had been kept ready in the district.

Mr. Palanisamy, who chaired consultative meetings with officials of the districts, said that instructions had been given to quickly move the procured paddy from the DPCs to the storage points. Paddy brought by farmers alone should be procured at the DPCs. Teams had been formed to conduct checks to prevent sale of paddy by others using fake documents at the DPCs.

Collectors P. Akash (Nagapattinam) and H. S. Srikanth (Mayiladuthurai) attended the meetings.